3-D printer

While 3D printing has become en vogue, especially in hobbyist communities, 3D printed firearms have become the movements most unpopular application. Governments around the world have sought to either totally ban such products or discourage their use by playing on the guns' extremely short lifetimes. That fear factor, however, may no longer be usable soon, thanks to a specially crafted type of bullet that won't destroy a 3D printed gun, especially plastic ones, no matter how many times you fire it. Definitely law enforcement's worst nightmare.

There is perhaps no more doubt in anyone's mind that 3D printing is here to stay. But while a multitude of companies and startups have made 3D printing a breeze, creating something to be 3D printed isn't yet equally so. Either you design your own object or you employ the use of a dedicated 3D scanner, which isn't exactly easy to come by, not to mention cheap. XYZPrinting, however, might now have the solution to that. Introducing the da Vinci 1.0 AiO, claimed to be the first combo unit available for consumers at a relatively affordable price.

No, it isn't a combination of the popular microcontroller and Final Fantasy VII. Arduino Materia 101 is, instead, an almost foreseeable and completely expected merging of two of the hobbyist world's most popular toys: microcontrollers and 3D printing.

Police officers in Manchester conducted a raid recently on what they call the first 3-D printed gun factory. During the raid, officers discovered a 3-D printer they believe criminals were using to try and make a 3-D printed gun. The raid was conducted Thursday and the officers seized the printer and other components they believe was being used in the manufacture of firearms.

If you're a fan of 3-D printing, one of the most accessible 3-D printers on the market comes from MakerBot. The company also runs a 3-D printing design community called Thingiverse. The design community houses a huge number of 3-D printing projects with lots of pictures and other content.

Back in March, MakerBot unwrapped their latest product, but it wasn't another 3D printer this time around. Instead, it's a 3D scanner called the Digitizer, which allows users to take an object and duplicate it by scanning it, uploading it to the 3D printer, and printing it out. The company has announced that the Digitizer will begin shipping next week.

After seeing the Liberator 3D-printed handgun undergo some test firings a while back, one enthusiast thought it was time to up the ante and 3D-print his own rifle. While the Liberator was only able to fire off a couple of shots before it inevitably broke, the rifle was able to fire off 14 shots before the barrel cracked.

3D printing is becoming all the rage now, but so was smoking back in the roaring 20s, both of which are harmful to you, according to a new study by the Illinois Institute of Technology. Researchers have discovered that 3D printers can emit harmful ultrafine particles into the air, and they compare that to the harm of smoking a cigarette indoors.

What once was just a simple website for hosting online auctions is now a company that does so much more. eBay just launched a new service called Exact, which is essentially an online store dedicated entirely to 3D-printed products that shoppers can choose from and even customize, including phone cases, accessories, and jewelry.

In the latest of 3D-printed hardware, NASA has completed a series of test firings of the agency's first rocket engine part made entirely from 3D printing. The component in question is the rocket engine's injector, and it went through several hot-fire tests using a mix of liquid-oxygen and gaseous hydrogen.

So maybe we won't actually see a real-life Terminator come to fruition anytime soon, but flexible electronics could be in our future thanks to a new method of 3D printing that uses liquid metal instead of the traditional ABS plastic that we see being used in most 3D printers nowadays.

We see a lot of cool things in the 3D printing world, but this is definitely a first. A software engineer 3D-printed a duck foot that allowed one disabled duck to begin walking properly after the little creature suffered from a backward foot that made getting around painful and difficult. The duck was born with the backward foot, but after being given to Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary, Buttercup (as he's called) is able to walk freely.